Bowlers Shine But Younus And Azhar Fail Again

The Pakistanis predictably had the better of an emerging Cape Cobras side on the opening day of their warm-up match ahead of Thursday’s second Test against South Africa. In the low-key surroundings of the Wally Wilson Oval in Cape Town, Mohammad Irfan and Rahat Ali did the early damage, taking six wickets between them, before Abdur Rehman was rewarded for an encouraging spell by taking a couple of wickets towards the end of the innings.

The young Cobras side were all out for 156, with the Pakistanis, not without a few alarms, reaching stumps in reply on 127 for four. Younus Khan and Azhar Ali again failed, making it five failures apiece on tour thus far and leaving Pakistan with a couple of problems in the top-order ahead of the second Test. Indeed, the tourists slipped to 29 for three at one point as Western Province seam-bowler Johannes Bothma took a couple of wickets with the new ball.

As ever, captain Misbah-ul-Haq was on hand to calm their nerves and shared 58 with Faisal Iqbal (33) for the fourth-wicket and an unbroken 40 with Asad Shafiq (21 not out) for the fifth-wicket.

Earlier, 23-year-old Matthew Kleinveldt - cousin of Proteas fast-bowler Rory - and 19-year-old Keegan Petersen had shown some fight following the early loss of opener Sharn Gomes, caught behind off Rahat Ali. The two added 62 for the second-wicket but, once Irfan had had Petersen caught pulling to mid-wicket for 32, there was very little resistance to speak of.

Sybrand Engelbrecht was only other Cobras batsmen to pass 20 as Irfan ended with four for 20; Rahat two for 27; and Rehman three for 31. Ehsan Adil got through eight wicket-less overs for 17 runs, with only Tanvir Ahmed disappointing, conceding 5.54 an over from 11 overs for a solitary success.